David Hume, Scottish philosopher and historian, was born in Edinburgh on April 26, 1711. Here are a few of the things he said:
“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”
“The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so far, to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.”
“Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.”
“History is the discovering of the constant and universal principles of human nature.”
Adam Smith said of him “Poor David Hume is dying fast, but with more real cheerfulness and good humor and with more real resignation to the necessary course of things, than any Whining Christian ever dyed with pretended resignation to the will of God.”
You can find a collection of links to Hume’s works online here.
I remember reading Bertrand Russell’s comment somewhere that Hume was the most honest of philosphers, willing to not prejudice the question, and bereft of a conclusion which he was trying to force the inquiry to support.